[ I am sitting on a bench and wearing a red scarf! ]

Closing the screen on my phone, I looked into my own apparel. I was wearing my newly bought clothes, a red jersey jacket which featured white stripes on its sleeves over a black v-neck T-shirt with light brown pants. Bending my neck backwards, the thing that greeted me was a formidable glass-and-steel apartment building rose from its position like a glittering needle threading the sky.

But that wasn't my destination. My destination was the park next to that building.

The park was acres of concrete interspersed with neat grass verges. It had a rollerblading track, tennis courts, basketball courts, child playground, water fountain and skateboarder basin. There were vendors with hot dogs and burgers, vendors with curry and rice, vendors with tacos and sour cream. There was always music, sometimes clashing from various sources, none of them official. It didn't have colour from roses or asters, but it was more vibrant than any planned garden.

I strolled my way down to the water fountain, where I could see several elderly just sat somewhere where the birds could actually be heard or playing chess with their friends.

Looking around from where I stood, just from the corner of the water fountain, red hair figure caught my eye and I continued walking toward her direction, making my way around the water fountain. Only for me to stop walking and staring at her for a few seconds... hesitating.

Sitting down was a girl with shoulder length red hair, with two blue clips attached to her left fringe. Her eyes were dark brown, and just like her message, I saw her wearing a red scarf over her dark blue sweaters, her skirts were khaki, reaching all the way up to her knees. With a spoon between her finger, a morsel of food stuck firmly on the end.

"..." For some other reason, I didn't know how I should greet her.

Red's mouth was wide open, ready to accept the spoon but she seemed to be frozen in place when she noticed me and staring at me with her huge eyes like a rabbit in headlights. I was staring back at her, trying to curl my lips into a smile, suddenly remembering I hadn't said anything to her. This weird stalemate kept us both stunned into silence, punctuated only by the sound of chess pieces hammering onto their wooden board.

"Hello~" Red said with a smile. Her arm raised up and she waved at me, beckoning me to come and sit next to her. She then stuffed the spoonful in her mouth and was now staring at me expectantly while chewing. This was a bit awkward.

I... I supposed going back would be incredibly rude. I marched forward with a complicated feeling. "Um... hello. Sorry for being late."

I didn't late though. We were making an appointment to meet at 4 p.m and the time right now was 3:58. But... I couldn't help but said that to her.

"It's fine~ I just got here either." She picked up another spoonful.

I raised my eyebrows as I saw... the mountain of food packaging piled up on the bench. "Did you?"

She looked to where my eyes were staring at while gulping down her food, then she gasped as if no one should've known about her lie. "You... are pretty observant. I guess I did not. And you must be..."

"Ah, I'm Yuu. Emiya Yuu. I'm the one that you meet on that app."

"Oh? Using a real name? Then I'm Aya. Ikezawa Aya. Aya Ikezawa. As you can see I won't be walking anywhere, but at least we've met each other now. That's very nice."

Her deadpan manner of talking made it hard for me to determine whether she was joking about walking or not. It kinda bothered me though, I wouldn't say she catfishing me since I didn't ask whether or not she was... wheelchair bound. I never had met any other person, especially someone near on my age using a wheelchair, so I didn't know how I should react at her joke, but I just thought joking about these matters didn't feel appropriate at all.

While I was trying to figure what was appropriate and whether this girl was, Aya seemed to have lost interest in me and was now gazing yearningly back at her food. "If you don't mind me, can I continue my lunch first?"

"Go right ahead. But... lunch? Isn't now a little bit too late for lunch?" I sat down on the bench while looking to the girl that was sitting on her own wheelchair. 

She let her spoon stayed in her mouth for a second while pondering about something before she took the spoon out from her mouth. "Then~ What word would you use then? There is no word for a meal you eat after lunch but before dinner, right? It bothers me very much too, but I don't really know what I should say."

"I don't think you are supposed to eat a meal between lunch and dinner to begin with."

She raised her eyebrows as if she was suspecting my statement was false. "But I'm hungry now and my delicious boxed lunch would go to waste otherwise." With much decisiveness, Aya once again picked up the spoon and with at least as much impoliteness, she pointed it straight at me. "I have a curry! It's very delicious. Do you want some? I don't mind giving you one or maybe two spoon~ but not three! three is too much."

I... politely declined her offer by shaking my head several times and patiently waiting for Aya to finish her lunch.

Halfway through her lunch, "So, Emiya, what kind of question do you want to ask? I might not look like it, but I am pretty smart, you know." Aya thumped her chest with a smug expression.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I..."

I opened my mouth but did not have the chance to say more words.

"Wait! I can guess. I am good at guessing. Better than most people do."

Aya cut me off before I could answer her question. She kept wondering what my question could be, with an overtly contemplative look on her face. She put her spoon between her lips and leaned back, looking at the sky as if the answer was written up there.

"I think it's must be something related to MMMA. But I don't think the question will be boringly ordinary, unlike this lunch of mine, which is amazing." She nodded for a while and snapped her finger. "I see~ Your question must be 'What should I do after I got gang raped by a tentacle monster and how do I get my revenge!?"

This messed-up Sherlock Holmes kind of statement and the sheer lack of tact it was delivered with caught me completely off guard. I thought I might've reeled back even physically as Aya's eyes widened in revelation and astonishment.

"So I was right! A monster with tentacles is raping you, right? And the reason why you seem hesitant to sit down is because your butt is hurt, am I right?!"

I still partially in shock but recognizing the need to reply something, I spat out the first thing that I could think of. At the same time, I was amazed by the fact she seemed fine mentioning the word 'butt' while eating her curry.

"What?! No! Nothing like that. I only meet goblin and several other small monsters."

As I said it, the girl in front of me pursed her lips together and glowered at me, looking very disappointed.

"How boring~ Trouble with tentacle monster would have been much more scandalous."

What was with this reaction?

"I guess... sorry to let you down?"

"I forgive you." She said with a big grin while patting my back."Anyway, if your question isn't something about the tentacle monster, then what do you want to ask? If it about the existence of monsters in general, yes, they exist, it is written on the term and agreement, paragraph 47."

With little left to say, Aya resumed her lunch and the conversation died away, but I kept thinking about what was said. Normally a person wouldn't read something like that, right? Especially when it was only for registering in some kind of social media.

"Ah! Right! Since you agreed to meet me, I assume for now you don't have a partner, right?"

I... really felt like as someone that'd just skipped the whole tutorial part and was now didn't know how to play the game. Anyway, I shook my head, completely unsure by the meaning of her words.

"Hm~ Even without a partner you still able to level up? It seems we have a tough guy over here." She said while jokingly punched me in the shoulders. "So~ how about we become a partner?"

"Ehh..."

I was not sure what to make of this partner thingy, but Aya looked serious even though her tone was still playful. "...Can you explain what is 'partner'?"

I had enough confusion by not reading the term and agreement, and if I could, I didn't want to have that kind of feeling when agreeing with something that I didn't know.

"Ah~ I think I just find someone that didn't read the terms and agreement." Aya sneered at me. "Well, to put it simply~ By becoming a partner we can use our Miracle when we are near to each other."

"..."

I waited for a few seconds and let the silence filled the air, but it seemed that was really all she had to say.

"Anyway, it will be easier if I just show you how."

Aya started taking her phone out, opened my profile and used her thumb to hold my profile for a few seconds, which if I timed it right was about three seconds. A new menu selection appeared from the bottom. There were four rows and starting from the top it was: Send File. Partner Up. Create Party. Delete Match. And with a single movement from her finger, I felt a vibration from my pocket.

Taking my phone, it was an invitation to Partner Up with her, in which, I pressed yes.

Congratulations! You now have a partner.

You have received a new Extraordinary Miracle: Eagle Eye Lvl 1.

After the notification, I looked down at my phone and double check it with Aya's. It seemed both of us had gotten a new Miracle, though she didn't seem that surprised by this discovery as she just spooned the last bits of her meal to her mouth. 

Emiya Yuu

Extraordinary Miracle:

Hunter's Bond Lvl 1. (Improve the attitude of an animal toward you. You can use this Miracle to form a close bond with one animal and increases its status by one.)

Red

Supernatural Miracle:

Eagle's Eye Lvl 1. (Your eyes become wide and raptor-like, and you grow feathers on the sides of your head. Increase your stealth detection by 2, Visual Acuity by 1.5 and field of vision by 10 degrees. Last: 1 minute. Cost: 1 Miracle Point.)

"So... how do I use this 'Miracle' thingy?"

Aya looked at me hard in the eyes but that intimidating feeling you get when someone stared at you wasn't there. It was like she was actually not looking at me at all. She blinked a couple of times, and I couldn't figure out why a pause like this just popped between us out of nowhere. "You... don't plan to do Miracle in this place, right?"

"Eh..."

She... somehow had a common sense.

"Anyway just follow me. I know someplace in this park where there is no a lot of people." She said as she started spinning the wheel away, as I followed her from behind, only for her to suddenly stop. "That's very nice of you. Don't need to feel obliged to push my wheelchair. I was about to use my hand to spin them anyway. You just do whatever you are going to do."

"Err..." Was that sarcasm? or was that her true thought? To tell the truth, it was kinda hard to figure out what she wanted. "Right... let me help you with that, Ikezawa."

"You can call me Aya. I feel that our relationship is at this point good enough to warrant this much."

"Fine, then I'm Yuu."

"Then you are."

There was something like a tiny smile there in her face when she said that, maybe.

Anyway, with that, I quietly pushed her to the back of this park. As we reached the empty part, she just casually... turned into a wolf with red fur and piercing yellow eyes. She happily leapt out from her wheelchair while darting her tongue across sharp white teeth and started running around, chasing after a butterfly.

I felt like this supposed to be a big revelation like the moment when David revealed as the werewolf, but she just casually spoiled it like that and playing all by herself while ignoring our true purpose.

"What an intriguing person..." I couldn't help but mutter that.

In front of me, I heard a muffled, sing-song voice: "I heard tha~t!" Said Aya... even though she was still in her wolf form.